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Mar 3, 2010 -- 6:49AM, dangerlinto wrote:

Mar 3, 2010 -- 6:33AM, DonTheMage wrote:

Now, let's be honest.  If WotC put out a set of From The Vaults: Reserved List and reprinted every card in foil for $100, they would sell 10,000 copies easily.  That's a million dollars in sales right there.  However, what would that million dollars in short term sales cost them long-term?

I don't know - what *would* it cost them?

Seriously, do you thikn people would stop buying new product from WoTC because they did that?  Honestly, I don't think so.

This is an important question, but I think that one important factor sometimes gets missed in the argument.

If Wizards reprinted the Power Nine, sure I'd rush over to wherever I could to buy some. And after doing that, clearly I wouldn't then suddenly stop playing Magic - if people did suddenly lose all interest in playing Magic, then even the P9 would become worthless.

So what's the problem?

As it happens, though, some dealers - the good ones - form part of the secondary market. They stock copies of cards like Force of Will , and, yes, maybe even cards from the P9. Imagine how they would feel when the value of those cards crashed through the floor.

Now then: how much would it cost Wizards on future sales if you could only get boosters at places like Wal-Mart and Target, and there were no longer any gaming stores that hosted FNM or other local events?

Mar 3, 2010 -- 10:41AM, nushae wrote:

Mar 3, 2010 -- 10:34AM, natedawg wrote:

Well, if it's indeed a sign of the apocalypse, then they should go ahead and freak.  But it's not a bulwark holding back the apocalypse as some people think.

I'm just saying, if the first sign of possible apocalypse is changing the RL, even though that doesn't mean apocalypse is a sure thing, you would be a fool to ignore such a sign. You're basically saying that the sign itself is a reason to ignore it. If wizards wanted to do something risky that the RL prevented them from doing, they could simply remove/change the RL, sure. The point is that as long as they don't remove/change it, we KNOW we're safe from (at least those) mistakes.

I guess the way I would describe my opinion is that if they're going do something really dumb, they're going to do it all at once.  The same announcement of Chronicles 2 would contain the removal of the RL.

The removal of the RL would now allow them to decide reprints on a case-by-case basis.

Or another way to look at it - the existence or lack of the RL in 2010 holds zero predictive power for the apocalypse occurring in 2011.

Mar 3, 2010 -- 7:25AM, bastardx wrote:

Well Don and co. you can argue all day but thankfully Wotc is going to change policy and use the good old common sense. As for some of you arguing the future big spenders get hurt... Well that totally explains one of the biggest dealers on the planet being in favour of it right?

Although this is an MTGO forum, it seems that here we're talking about the Reserved List and physical cards.

Yes, getting rid of the Reserved List is a good idea, because most of the cards it prevents from being reprinted would go up, not down, in value if they could be reprinted. A few of those cards might even be worthwhile to have available.

But that's different from Wizards not only getting rid of the Reserved List, but also not using common sense in what they reprint. That would be bad; bad for the game, because those cards were too powerful, and bad for Wizards - because that could lead to them losing the good part of their dealer network.

I do think that the absence of the P9 does leave a void in Magic, though, of sorts. Time Spiral included "fixed" versions of many old, powerful cards that had higher costs or other drawbacks. But a fixed card is a different card that does different things.  What I'd like to see is some scheme where something like Cascade makes it a possible, but very rare, event for a card to behave exactly like one of those old, overpowered cards - and I've suggested various elaborate (and, hence, impractical) schemes by which that could be done.

The removal of the RL would now allow them to decide reprints on a case-by-case basis.

You clearly don't feel all the cards should be reprinted.
What card, or cards, specifically, do you feel WotC should reprint but cannot due to the RL?  In what way are the cards you select unique or why is it not feasible to make a different version of the same card? 
I'm thinking your earlier example was crappy because Don rightly pointed out that it could be reprinted as a 2/3 without harming the RL or the game.